Game log 3

Game log day 3 - imagine

Reflect on how, in your different roles, you included the chosen values, cultural heritage, and cultural/societal theme into the mockup's aesthetics, story, design, and interaction. How did Playtesters respond to these elements? Include brief reflections from your team members.

We are kind of fluent in our roles, because we feel it works best (Part of our team isn’t present). We have discussed our chosen EU value, the GameJam theme “That’s not fair,” cultural heritage, and what part it is going to play in our game. These themes have become the main focus of our game. Both the storyteller, the designer role and the artist worked close together today with making the mocking 

Based on Playtest feedback, consider how your mockup can evolve into a prototype or full game by further enhancing the use of your chosen values, cultural heritage, and cultural/societal theme as game-making material. Identify key elements to focus on in the next phase of development. Include brief reflections from your team members on their efforts to create a cultural gameworld and an empowering gameplay experience.

We don’t feel our idea/game is developed enough for us to test it the way we want since the feedback from clicking on the objects aren’t implemented in the game yet. But during the playtest it became apparent that the player really had to think about all the objects in the apartment and how they could both be Danish and not. This is something that we want to focus and reinforce on in the next stage, making it apparent that the player is making stereotypical choices and excluding some people and cultures form Denmark, by excluding things. Our test person suggested that there should be a hoover effect on the mouse that asks the player if they are sure that they want to click on that object, making the choosing even harder. 

Reflect on how your mockup, with its focus on values and cultural heritage, stands out as a different or innovative game for culture. What new elements are you trying to introduce, and what insights did the playtest provide? 

In the mockup of the apartment we focus on putting a lot of different things in the apartment. Many of the items are things which can be interpreted in different ways and reflect different cultures and social groups. We hope to tempt the player to click on some of these things, making stereotypical assumptions. The feedback from interacting with the objects then confronts the player with their choice. We try to hide the meaning of the game in the beginning, making it very open and then shocking the player with the responses to their interactions.

Hopefully this game will help the players identify and challenge their prejudices in a non-judgemental way. 

Export council feedback:

• In general they were excited about our idea, ensuring us that they thought our approach to the cultural heritage was very strong. They encouraged us to think about what person should live in the apartment. We began with a muslim living in Denmark in the apartment, but our concern was that we had to implement stereotypes to make the player think about their prejudice and unequal way of thinking. They suggested that it could be some less complicated people that the apartment represented, or not anyone in particular -just a dane. The storyteller therefore started to think about how the story should go and how personal the description of the residential person should be. 

• At the same time the designer and storyteller had a concern about how fun the interaction with the game was and how to make it more fun to play. The experts made the suggestion to make some of the items more interactive and fun to click. Which is something both the designer, storyteller and the crafter needs to take a deeper look into tomorrow. What should the artifact say when it is clicked? How should it be said? How will the interaction function in the program?

Notes from the expert council:

Include visual/written documentation from the Imagine phase and your methods, as well as of Playtest & Playtest Capture Grid

In the playtest we encouraged him to speak aloud while making his choices and asked him questions afterwards about his experience with the game, where he said:

• It is really hard with so many possibilities to choose from
• He clicks on the sauerkraut, excluding this from the home. But after choosing it he thinks about how people in the southern part of Jutland could eat sauerkraut. 
• He became a bit scared of clicking on things that would be politically incorrect.
• He stated that he began to think about what defines a real Danish thing. Is it based on how many danish people have the artefact in their home or is it old traditional danish things that defines it.

In general he thought the message of the game to be very apparent. He began thinking about why some things should be seen as more danish as others. Since the feedback wasn’t included, he couldn’t get the full experience, but mentioned how the feedback would make him more

 aware of his choices and the consequences of excluding things from being Danish. 

Playtest capture card:

Rapid mock-up:

Possible sounds when clicking on certain objects:

• Picture of Queen Margrethe II - “Gud bevare Danmark, where I am no longer welcome”
• telefonen - “ring ring” sound 
• bobble sounds when you click on the hookah
• football - football sounds
• Painting of cow - “Moooh, why do I not belong in Denmark, do you not like my milk?”
• sauerkraut - “hmm Ich Liebe Sauerkraut"
• velo pakken -